November 2011

11/17/2011

Today, we spent some time sharing with our Chilean colleagues and site workers more about the research that we're doing at Cerro Ballena. Specifically, Vince and Adam shared a short presentation featuring some highlights of the Smithsonian's 3D digitization work, and what they're able to do, in terms of digitizing physical objects, with different kinds of scanning technology. It's the second time I've heard the talk, I'm still surprised by the reality of what their techniques and expertise can accomplish. Essentially, our goal is to digitize entire skeletons of fossil whales, as they lay in the ground, to preserve as much key information about how they died, before they're excavated and removed from the site.

Left to right, inside the tent, Vince and Adam explain the principles of how long-range laser scanning works, with Carolina Gutstein, far right, translating for the site workers in the foreground. Note the time-lapse camera rig above the laptop (Photo NDP)

One of the fossil whale specimens at Cerro Ballena, under the makeshift (but formidable) tent, which casts a wonderful, dappled light at midday. The team clusters around the laptop for the 3D digitization presentation. (Photo NDP)

Carolina, mid-sentence, as she translates questions from Spanish to English, and then back again, during the talk. (Photo NDP)

11/16/2011

Things have progressing well here, despite a slower pace to today's work. Adam and Vince worked late into the night scanning fossil whales, including detailed work on one particular specimen using the high-resolution FaroArm. More photos soon.

The main purpose of this post is an enjoyable time-lapse video, shot by Adam Metallo. It shows a unique glimpse of our work, as it happened, directly from the airport, fresh from our arrival the same day into Chile via Santiago, to the field site. At the site, the first fossil whale in the video was being molded, in situ, for the Museo Paleontologico de Caldera (where team member Mario Suarez is a curator) -- we hope to go back to it and scan it later this week. The second fossil whale in the video is the focus our detailed scanning effort by the Smithsonian's 3D digitization team. Mario's crew worked very quickly to set up the tent from which I type this post.

More to come, as Adam and Vince have shooting time-lapse videos for the past few days. (Also check out their Facebook page for more photos and video of their past work!)

11/15/2011

Best party in Gondwana tonight? The roadcut north of Caldera, off Ruta 5.

Today, Mario Suarez's team finished the tent around a key specimen, allowing Vince and Adam to begin the high resolution scans of it with the FARO arm into the night. Our gear is powered off a generator, which also is powering the WiFi I'm using right now.

Inside the tent, with Adam in the background and Vince in the foreground. This photo was snapped just prior to the interior string of lights, engineered by Carolina. (Photo NDP)

Adam assists Carolina, who plies her skills as an electrical engineer -- something her father taught her how to do when she was young. You never know when you might need to make extension cords and lights! (Photo NDP)

Building the heavy, weighted base for the FARO arm with Sergio, chief of Mario's foremen crew. (It's not really an excavation until you can use excavation machines). The box is the fruitful result of Adam's crack carpentry skills coupled with Carolina's suggestion to use rebar handles embedded in plaster. (Photo NDP)

Here are some snaps from our work today. We arrived at the Copiapo airport at 3 pm, and had boots on site before 4 pm. Vince and Adam made great progress on some preliminary scans of the fossil whales at Cerro Ballena, and we look forward to more detailed work in the coming days.

NGS project team member Rodrigo Terreros, armed with his camera, stands in the bucket of a front end loader, to get a better view of the site. (Photo Adam Metallo)

Under careful guidance, Adam learns the sacred art of making a palta y palmito sandwich off the back gate of Mario Suarez's field truck. I think Adam and Vince have been converted. (Photo Vince Rossi)

Gear. Gear. And more gear. Our cabanas (same ones we stayed at a month ago) have now been converted into a machine shop -- in a good way, though. The FARO laser scanner stands atop its tripod. The right gear is just part of the story; it also takes expertise, foresight, improvisation and a LOT of logistics. 4G WiFi connection also helps. (Photo NDP)

11/12/2011

Pyenson Lab is returning to Chile, tomorrow, for some critical and time-sensitive fieldwork, funded with additional support from the National Geographic Society's Committee on Research and Exploration, and NMNH. And we're bringing some special team members from Smithsonian's Digitization Program Office. We plan to post a few updates during our time there.

Until then, take a look at some unique tools we'll be using, below (note: Microsoft Silverlight required). The scene also introduces our two new colleagues, Adam Metallo and Vince Rossi (left and right). Zoom around, pan about, and check it out! (Go to this link for more information).

11/08/2011

In other news, one of NDP's 2011 publications earned a cover image -- check out the upcoming 7 December print issue of the Proceedings B of the Royal Society. The cover image is featured below, courtesy of Lisa Levin, a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in La Jolla, California. (I found out about her work on the Namibian coast through a mutual colleague and friend of the show, M.F. McKenna).

The skull and skeleton of a rorqual (likely Balaenoptera acutorostrata or B. borealis) rests on the coast of Namibia. Photo: Lisa Levin, SIO

The current Proceedings B paper is effectively the sequel to Pyenson (2010, Paleobiology), addressing the macroecology of cetacean strandings with a larger dataset that spans localities across the world. In forthcoming work (with Edward Davis), we intend to complete the lineage with the third paper on this topic, evaluating the spatio-temporal scaling of these datasets in more detail, and what they mean for sampling diversity in the fossil record.